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AXA's aggressive salespeople locked my wife in and she has some money in there now - about $6k. I want to change it to one of other providers available to her. Please let me know what the best choice is for lowest fees. Unfortunately, Fidelity was removed, and there's no Vanguard either, which would have been no-brainers. Is it Aspire? Also, if you guys know if we're going to get screwed by AXA on rollover fees, etc. that would be helpful. See the image for the providers.
As an aside, I also have a SEP-IRA ($25k) and a 457 ($105k) also locked into AXA, but my employer has them as their only choice with this 1985-era annuity that is absolutely savage on fees... 1.35% off the top for a "separate account fee" plus everything else. I've complained but my HR person has zero HR experience, my GM is unmotivated and nobody else knows anything. I transfer $ from my SEP-IRA to a Vanguard IRA annually via a rollover of the max amount I can that is fee-free, but beyond that, I feel helpless. As I'm maxxing out my 457 right now, I'm not even really sure I should be doing that or should I be using a different investment vehicle? FWIW, I gross about $98k and expect to retire in 17 years.
Responses to either of these issues would be much appreciated.

Aloha folks!
So I learned a new term today... Thanks to this forum and the kind folks here, I started my journey toward fiscal responsibility and found out about my state's 457 "deferred compensation" program and a better 403b option with lower fees and better investment options. I got the 403b new account open and redirected my pre-tax savings into it. Now that that's squared away, I'm finally getting the exchange paperwork done. When I requested the paperwork and the account numbers, the advisor that set up the original 403b contract has suggested the use of a "free corridor" to avoid surrender fees.
When I looked up the term, it seems as though surrender fees can vary from contract to contract... some fees drop off completely after a certain amount of time, and some reduce by steps year after year depending on a certain amount of time. Near as I can tell, my contract with AXA specifies that the surrender fee won't fall off until after year 7, and I'm only in year 4. From other internet reading, for some contracts, surrender fees are applied to the date of the monies being deposited , not necessarily the date of the contract start.... so "free corridor" is the money that can be transferred without surrender fees, which can be done in incrementally.
The way I look at it now, my surrender fees are high, but not as bad as leaving the money in the account.... where I'd be accumulating an annual fee, expense ratios, and a quarterly penalty for an account under $XX,000. Haha... so my answer to my own question is... it's not worth it for me according to the math.
So now, near as I can tell, I have all the information and paperwork that each provider and my state's TPA requires to get this done. Whew!

I have been unable to find a definitive answer to my question about mid year rollovers and 72t distributions. I hope someone can help.
Both my wife and I (both will be 55 when retiring) plan on retiring and rolling our 403B monies into IRA's. We plan to roll the 403B's into multiple IRA's so as to add to our flexibility. We plan on withdrawing from the IRA's using 72(t) provisions starting as soon as possible. The rollovers will occur in January and February. What amount do we use to calculate the withdrawal amount since there will be no balance in the IRA's on Dec. 31 of the previous year?
I would guess if I were to rollover the 403B monies into one IRA for each of us then I could use the Dec. 31 value of the 403B account. But I would like the flexibility of being able to fall back on a lesser RMD amount if circumstances warrant. That is why I would like to break the 403B monies into smaller IRA accounts. Thanks for your time and consideration.

I've had the great fortune of happening upon 403bwise, and after reading a lot here, I've decided to come forward and seek the wisdom of these forums My mother is a teacher at a public high school in California. She is now 60 years old. About 8 years ago, she signed a contract with Axa for their Equi-vest 403b variable deferred annuity. It very recently came to our attention that this was bad decision. I am sure most of the readers here know of Axa's exorbitant fees, dense contract, and many of the other issues that often come with variable annuities (thanks to these forums I now am one of those in the know too!). Anyway, my first question is: how much should she expect to pay in charges and fees if we decide to surrender this contract and rollover the money into a much more favorable account? If I've understood the contract correctly, there will be no withdrawal charge given that she is older than 59 and a half and had the contract at least 5 years. Are there other potential charges or issues we may not be aware of? My second question is: what option would be recommendable for a rollover? Here is a link to the list of her options: https://www.403bcompare.com/Employee/MyEmployer/EmployerDetail.aspx?eid=107682. Some of her options are Calstrs Pension2, Vanguard, and T. Rowe Price. We are leaning toward Calstrs Pension2 given that they have "Easy Choice" portfolios, which seem inexpensive and simple.
Thank you for your time and any help you can provide. :)

I am a newbie to this forum. And to my own investing in general. I have an IRA that was my former employer's 401(k) which I rolled into an IRA at Morgan Stanley 6 years ago. My TRAK Personalized Investment Advisory Service in 6 years has yielded exactly nothing - I am at the same place as when I gave it to them to work for me - that is my problem. I now work for a nonprofit with a 403(b) which is invested in some very well performing funds and I'm making a lot of money there. I'd like to roll my IRA into the 403(b) - and I can't find any information as to tax consequences if any, or whether it is a Roth IRA or not matters. Does anyone on this message board have any experience with this? Please advise.